My enormous thanks to poet Victoria Day Joel for sending me a copy of her anthology New Beginnings in return for an honest review. It gives me great pleasure to share that review today.

Published by Olympia, New Beginnings is available for purchase here.

New Beginnings

New Beginnings is a collection of poetry and verses, describing nature, new relationships and a move to Spain.

The poems describe how people meet and how relationships grow; how love between two people works. It also discusses how life decisions are made – whether they’re the right ones or the wrong ones.

The verses discuss ‘love at first sight’ or at least how people can feel comfortable in each other’s company from a very early stage after meeting.

Each poem is accompanied by a verse which gives a commentary of the narrator’s relationships and opinions of the world around them.

‘Thought provoking, beautiful and deeply emotional. Something to be turned to for inspiration, hope and heart’. – The Countess Bathurst

My Review of New Beginnings

A collection of personal poetry with commentaries.

New Beginnings is a really interesting concept as I haven’t encountered many poets who provide an explanation or further writing with their work so immediately after each poem, giving an extra dimension to the book. I think I might have liked a larger white space between the two aspects to allow me to think about and absorb the poetry and verses a little more before moving on to the exposition, but this is very much my personal viewpoint and I found Victoria Day-Joel’s explanations gave a super added dimension of understanding.

What Victoria Day-Joel achieves in New Beginnings is an honest insight into a mature woman’s innermost thoughts and feelings as she takes her reader through her desire to start afresh in Spain, through her passionate love and through her successes and frustrations. This makes the anthology feel real and immediate. There’s a really important message in New Beginnings about living in the moment, being true to yourself and appreciating aspects of life like the moon and nature rather than seeing success in terms of material acquisition, so that this is a book of inspiration as well as entertainment. It was the natural imagery and the frequent questions in the verses that drew me in, alongside the expressions of love that pepper the text.

I think what I appreciated most about New Beginnings was the author’s honesty and willingness to expose her desires, her flaws and her reality. It made New Beginnings feel intimate and confidential.

I really enjoyed being part of Victoria Day-Joel’s journey – which is exactly how the poems in New Beginnings made me feel; as if I had been somehow included in her experience, albeit briefly. I finished reading the anthology wondering if she has achieved her aim of living in Spain, or if the Brexit impact fears she had have been further exasperated by the recent pandemic. I hope not. Reading New Beginnings made me think I’d enjoy meeting Victoria Day-Joel very much and I hope all her dreams expressed here come true.

About Victoria Day-Joel

Victoria was born in Cambridge in 1979 and brought up and educated in the Cotswolds, later moving to Cheshire before returning back home in 2016. Always interested in spiritual studies and human behaviour, Victoria wanted to go to astrology school. Settling on a more mainstream route of psychology, media studies and a computer course, it was that which led to her first full time job in estate agency. For years working in different towns north and south, and later in private medical insurance, accompanying these moves combined a passion for travelling. Victoria started her own business in 2014 in Crystal Healing and Reiki and is now seeking a spiritual home in Spain.

For further information, visit Victoria’s website, or find her on Facebook and Instagram.